BNSF Railway
Bio BNSF (Burlington Northern and Santa Fe) Railway is a standard-gauge US Class 1 freight railroad (major freight railroad) which operates over the Southwestern, Northwestern, and Midwestern United States. The railroad was formed when the ATSF (Santa Fe) and BN (Burlington Northern) US Class 1 regional railroads merged in 1995, creating what is now known as BNSF Railway. BNSF operates over 1,000 trains a day, and is one of Union Pacific's main rivals, and both railroads operate over mostly the same trackage. (Yet, BNSF mainly covers routes and freight that UP doesn't.) Norfolk Southern is one of their main partners as well. (Yet, ironically, both NS and BNSF suffered during the economic downturn during 2008 in the US.) They are also the second-largest US Class 1 railroad in the US. Their currently headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. History During the early 1990's, the last original remaining US Class 1 railroads were slowly in the process of becoming absorbed or merging into other railroads which began the next generation of railroading. As opposed to having over 60 US Class 1 freight railroads covering the 48 mainland states, they became narrowed down to about 8 before 1995, 1996, and 1999; when the SP, Conrail, CNW, and DRGW became defunct. The ATSF and BN's merger was one of the results of the decline, yet the merger was one of the most successful railroad mergers (besides CSX) to actually not have any financial issues (Penn Central), and to not have absorbed one another like with the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific merger. The success of the creation of BNSF led to having more trains over the former ATSF and BN's rail lines, more customers, the retirement of older locomotives (such as the F45), the purchase of newer locomotives (Dash 9), and the creation of a new scheme and logo for their locomotives. In 1996, a shy year after the merger, BNSF officially established their Heritage 1 (H1) scheme with an ATSF-style logo as their official logo. In 2001, the Heritage 2 (H2) scheme was introduced with ATSF-style lettering, with the current Heritage 3 (H3) scheme being released in 2007 with their current "swoosh" style logo, which is considered to be the first official logo to be completely new and original. BNSF's history is still being written as of today. Routes BNSF operates over former '''ATSF trackage '''throughout: New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Illinois. BNSF operates on '''BN trackage '''over: Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Illinois (once shared Chicago racetrack line with ATSF before merger), Wyoming, Louisiana, Idaho, Minnesota, Utah, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. Paintschemes BNSF's paintscheme colors are orange, yellow, green, and black on their H1, H2, and H3 schemes. Many former patched and unpatched BN and ATSF units still exist on their roster, but are often mistaken for their counter-part's existence; to whom most average people confuse the ATSF and BN still being in existence with the lettering and paintschemes still remaining. Aside from the H1 and H2 logo's being from ATSF origin, the H1 scheme is designed after the BN's "cascade" scheme used on their SD70MAC's, with the H2 scheme being more simple like with the BN's primary scheme, but having an ATSF-style hood logo. The H3 scheme has the same design as the H2 scheme, but with the "swoosh" logos added. Photo Gallery BNSF GP35.jpg|An example of a patched former ATSF GP35. BNSF GP39E.jpg|An example of a patched former BN GP39-2E. BNSF Warbonnet.jpg|An example of a patched former ATSF C44-9CW. BNSF Warbonnet Dash 9's.jpg|Freshly-painted BNSF-patched ATSF Warbonnet-painted Dash 9's during the late-1990's. BNSF 9647.jpg|An example of BNSF 9647 "The Vomit Bonnet", the exclusive SD70MAC. BNSF SD70MAC.jpg|Former patched BN SD70MAC. Rare BNSF Patched Leased Unit.JPG|An example of a leased GATX GP38-2. BNSF 7695.JPG|An example of BNSF #7695. BNSF 8197.jpg|An example of BNSF 8197, the "Odd-ball Pumpkin" or "The Great Pumpkin". BN Rotary Snowplow.jpg|An example of a former BN rotary snowplow. BNSF Rotary Snowplow.jpg|An example of a H3-painted rotary snowplow. BNSF Rotary Snowplow 2.jpg|An example of a former GN-painted "heritage" rotary snowplow with BNSF lettering and numbering. BNSF Heritage Schemes BNSF B40-8.jpg|An example of a Heritage 1-painted BNSF B40-8. BNSF Dash 9.jpg|An example of a BNSF Heritage 2-painted C44-9CW. BNSF GEVO.jpg|An example of a Heritage 3-painted ES44DC. Trivia/Facts *BNSF's paintschemes are often referred to or nicknamed "pumpkins" by railfans, aside from repainted and patched former ATSF "Warbonnet" units known as a "Fake-bonnets", as well as faded Warbonnet units nicknamed "Pink-bonnets". *BNSF SD70MAC #9647 "The Vomit Bonnet" (as nicknamed by railfans), BNSF's first-painted locomotive, was one of the last SD70MAC's built, to whom it received a special experimental scheme to commemorate the "marriage" of the ATSF and BN, which this unit still wears this scheme as of October 2012. *BNSF SD60M #8197 "The Great Pumpkin" (one of the only later SD60M's purchased by the BN before the merger) was also painted in an experimental scheme, and is still in existence as of October 2012. *GE Dash 9's and GEVO's are BNSF's primarily-used diesel locomotives, and can often be seen on almost every mainline train. *A few years into the merger, BNSF repainted most of their former ATSF Warbonnet-painted diesel locomotives into an updated patched scheme. As well as with their SD70MAC's to avoid confusion with their fleet of former ATSF SD75M's. *They've recently purchased a fleet of GATX leased GP38-2's and patched most of them with their H3 logo's. *BNSF's second order of Dash 9's originally weren't fully painted due to their Heritage 2 scheme being developed during the order, and them denying the GE Erie plant employees to finish painting the units. *They also originally painted their wide-cab diesel locomotives in their H2 scheme during the H2 era, with every other standard cab or special units being painted in their H1 scheme similar to how the ATSF's Yellowbonnet and Warbonnet schemes were used. Yet, as of 2008, the tradition no longer exists, and every other locomotive is repainted into their H3 scheme. *As a result of the economic down-turn during 2008 in the US, BNSF fired or laid-off many of their employees and no longer primarily cleans their locomotives due to severe budget cuts. All of this was caused because of their loss of customers. *BNSF ES44DC #7695 is the only Heritage 3-painted unit to have yellow "swoosh" logos on BNSF's roster. *BNSF also uses a fleet of former BN (originally GN) rotary snowplows rebuilt from old EMD F units. *To help distinguish their fleet of former ATSF DC-traction EMD SD75M units from their former BN AC-traction SD70MAC units; BNSF still has most of them in their original predecessors schemes to avoid confusion as opposed to painting lightning bolts on the sides of their SD70MAC's like with UP and CSX. Category:Companies Category:US Class 1 Railroads Category:US railroads Category:North American Railroads